Xiao Feng (Little Wind) is a name we gave to this darling female Ducorp cockatoo that has shades of yellow here and there in her white cockatoo feathers. She is a very tame and sweet cockatoo…in fact, too tame. Like many cockatoos, Xiao Feng thrives on attention. Deprivation of which, she is prone to scream for it.There is something special about Xiao Feng and that is her left leg—two toes are missing. According to one of her previous owner, her toes got caught in the towel used to cover her cage for several hours. Because no one noticed and help her out, in her distress and panic, she bit off her own toes in a fruitless attempt to free herself. By the time the accident was known through her incessant screaming, it is already too late and her toes are gone.
And that is the sad stroy of her missing toes. Knowing how nimble cockatoos are with their toes, I'm often sadden when I carress and cuddle her, as those stubs reminded me of her past traumatic episode. Even now, Xiao Feng sometimes experienced nightmares in the middle of the night and will scream in terror, which we believe, is a result of that episode.
On the brighter side, she has this interesting habit of tapping her leg stub against plastic materials to make a tap-tap sound to catch people’s attention. And indeed, as characteristic of all cockatoos, she requires daily out of cage time and quality interactions with her human friends to be happy. Unfortunately, she has been jumping from home to home and according to what we have found out, she has switched 3 owners. We retrieve Xiao Feng from the latest owner who is selling her off in the hope of finding a special someone who can take in stride the demands of a cockatoo and give her a permanent loving home.
The first few days Xiao Feng was at my place is traumatic for me. She tested us all with her screams intermittenly, especially at nigt! With the help of an avian behaviourist, providing a nutritious well balanced diet (pellets, sprouts, vegetables and fruits), ample stimulation (toys and perches), attention and out of cage time, her screams have decreased over time!
With advice from the behaviourist, we also practice both positive and negative reinforcement on Xiao Feng and they have worked their wonders. Xiao feng rarely scream nowadays. We also notice a subtle change in her plummage...where it was once pure white has now be replaced by pink feathers! The yellow suffusing some of ehr wing and tail feathers have also intensified! We attribute these to the high vitamin (especially Vitamin A) diet she is on. Xiao Feng loves her sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin and red capsicum.
After being with us for so long, we feel hard to part with such a lovely and sweet hearted cockatoo that we decided to keep Xiao Feng for good. And so, to this day, Xiao Feng is still with us. The most loving of all my parrot friends. My little darling.
2 comments:
Are pink feathers supposed to be good?
Yup. Feathers are one of the indication of a parrot's health and well being. Parrots that have been fed a well balanced and nutritious diet will have verybrilliant plummage.
For white cockatoos like Moluccan and ducorps, it is genetically programmed in them to have lilac pink feathers. More for moluccans, lesser on ducorps, dependent on individual's genes.
So if fed a well rounded diet rich in beta carotene, these will be broken down and reconstituted and reflected in the white feathers as pink! :)
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